A Coloradoan reporter goes through process of applying for a concealed handgun permit.

Mar. 31, 2013

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An instructor is pictured during a concealed carry class at the Front Range Gun Club in Loveland on March 9. Upon successful completion of the class, which includes information on gun safety and gun laws, participants may apply for a concealed handgun permit from the sheriff's office. Below, reporter Kevin Duggan sits Friday as Larimer County Sheriff's Deputy Clayton Cross takes his mug shot. Photos by Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

Coloradoan senior reporter Kevin Duggan is pictured as he completes a concealed-carry class at the Front Range Gun Club in Loveland on March 9. Upon successful completion of the class, which includes information on gun safety and gun laws, participants may apply for a concealed-carry permit from the sheriff's office. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

Who’s eligible?

To receive a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Colorado, an applicant must: • Be a legal resident • Be at least 21 years old or at least 18 years old to receive a temporary, emergency permit • Be eligible to possess a firearm under state and federal law; ineligible persons include those convicted of felonies and some misdemeanors, such as third-degree assault, third-degree sexual assault and child abuse • Not be subject to an outstanding arrest warrant • Not have been found mentally defective, such as incompetent to handle one’s affairs or committed to a mental institution • Not habitually use alcohol to the extent one’s normal faculties are impaired • Not be a user of or addicted to controlled substances, including marijuana • Not subject to a restraining order, temporary or permanent • Be competent with the use of handgun and have evidence of training • Be truthful when answering questions on the permit application form Source: Larimer County Sheriff’s Office

Not welcome

Persons with concealed handgun permits may carry a weapon anywhere in Colorado except: • Where firearms are not permitted under federal law, such as post offices • Public elementary, middle, junior or senior high schools • A public building where security personnel and electronic weapons screening are permanently in place, such as the Larimer County Justice Center • Private property, such as homes and businesses, where weapons are not allowed Source: Larimer County Sheriff’s Office

A pistol is fired during the concealed-carry class at the Front Range Gun Club in Loveland on March 9. Upon successful completion of the class, which includes information on gun safety and gun laws, participants may apply for a concealed-carry permit from the sheriff's office. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

A target is displayed after it is shot during a concealed carry class at the Front Range Gun Club in Loveland on March 9. Upon successful completion of the class, which includes information on gun safety and laws, participants may apply for a concealed handgun permit. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

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LOVELAND — The shock of the gun going off in my hands was a surprise — just as it was supposed to be.

Just as surprising, and a little unnerving, was the sound of guns firing on either side of me, even with ear protection muffling the sharp noise.

But most unsettling of all was the understanding of what I and 27 other members of a class assembled for an afternoon of pistol training were practicing to do — shoot, and possibly kill, another person.

Bearing arms

As the debate about gun control heated up around the state and country, the Coloradoan decided to have a reporter go through the process of acquiring a permit to carry a concealed handgun at its expense.

I am not a gun guy and don’t come from a gun-friendly family. The only time I used firearms was as a boy during summer camp, when I shot .22-caliber rifles at paper targets.

I was a pretty good shot, but I never developed an interest in hunting or marksmanship.

But I wondered what it would take to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon and why a record number of residents were seeking permits.

Why would so many people feel the need to be armed as they go about their day-to-day lives?

In checking the regulations for acquiring a permit, I learned that along with a clean criminal record, proof of handgun training is required.

So I chose to take a basic pistol/concealed carry weapon course with the Makhaira Group, which is based in Northern Colorado and does training at the Front Range Gun Club in Loveland.

Be aware

The company’s trainers are former military members or current law enforcement officers who are certified firearms instructors. I reserved a spot in the course weeks in advance at a cost of $125.

Makhaira Group Vice President of Training Mark Caughlan said I was a typical customer for the class with little or no experience with handguns but some curiosity about them.

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The company sees a wide variety of people come through its classes — doctors, lawyers, teachers, hunters experienced with rifles but not handguns, retirees — who want to learn how to protect themselves, their families and others, he said.

About 30 percent of customers are women. My class included married couples of various ages and a few female college students.

The training wasn’t based on fear and the importance of being armed.

Rather, it was about being aware of one’s surroundings and prepared to react if confronted with a violent situation.

Sometimes that means responding with “swift and overwhelming force” by attempting to put a bullet in an attacker’s head or chest, and sometimes it means quickly getting out of harm’s way.

Students aren’t taught to look for a fight. They are taught to consider the consequences of pulling out a gun and firing at someone, Caughlan said.

“We want people to understand this isn’t about being Rambo or about being tough,” he said. “It’s about not getting in a gunfight; the best way to survive a gunfight is to not be in one.”

Safety always

The course was divided into two parts — more than four hours of classroom instruction and about 90 minutes on the firing range. After the first hour or so of the class, which focused on safety, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to touch a gun.

The primary instructor was Mark Hotaling, a former Navy SEAL and the company’s president. He and other instructors all had stories to tell about things going horribly wrong when guns were mishandled.

There is no such thing as an accidental discharge of a weapon; there are only negligent discharges, Hotaling said.

He showed graphic illustrations of the damage a gunshot can inflict on the human body, including a picture of a hand with hole from a .45-caliber bullet in its palm. The back of the hand was pretty much blown off.

The young woman sitting in front of me wearing a CSU sweatshirt turned her eyes away from the gory image.

Rules recited by Hotaling sounded much like lessons from summer camp so many years ago: Treat every weapon as if it’s loaded; don’t point a weapon at anything you are not willing to destroy; keep your finger off the trigger unless you are on a target you intend to destroy.

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And always identify a target and what’s between you and it and what’s behind it, he said adding a 9 mm bullet can travel through four sheets of drywall.

Ready, aim, fire

Hours later on the firing range, applying lessons learned in the classroom on how to properly grip a handgun, sight on a target and take a solid stance for better control of the weapon was harder than I expected.

The range was controlled and safety-conscious, but the setting still seemed disconcerting. The weapon I rented, a Glock 19 with 9 mm bullets, felt small in my hands. But I didn’t want a larger caliber weapon because I didn’t know what the recoil would be like.

Students took turns shooting at targets that were at distances of three yards — the distance FBI agents train at because handgun fights typically occur in tight quarters — and 31 feet, the distance an attacker can cover in the time it takes a person to pull a weapon and fire two rounds.

Some of the targets illustrated human forms. One was a picture of a man pointing back with a handgun.

We were told to aim for the body mass; aim for the head. Press the trigger slowly and smoothly and don’t anticipate the “break” — the shot and recoil — but be surprised by it, so as to not jerk the gun off target.

Speed is good, but accuracy is everything — be it on the range or in a “real world” confrontation, Hotaling said.

My shots tended to be a little low at first but gradually improved. One shot hit the guy on the target pointing a gun in the opening of the weapon’s barrel, although I cannot claim that happened because of a steady aim.

Why carry?

Chatting with classmates at the pistol training session revealed a variety of reasons for being there. Some were just curious about handguns and the permitting process; others said they were concerned about losing the legal right to carry a gun in the near future even though they are law-abiding.

Jose Valdes of Windsor said the training was on his “bucket list” of things to do in retirement. Riding motorcycles was also on the list.

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Valdes, 60, said he did not know if he would apply for a permit or carry a gun if he received one.

But the training made him more comfortable with the possibility.

“I’m bright enough to know that one hour of training is not going to cut it,” he said. “But I have the fundamentals; that’s the issue.”

Valdes said he does not have safety concerns that would spur him to get a gun, but he realizes “bad things can happen.”

“I now have a comfort level with pursuing that if I did have a concern,” he said.

Carolyn Schultz, 71, of Bellvue, said she grew up on a farm shooting rifles and other weapons, including handguns, and was comfortable with the training.

Schultz said she would get a concealed handgun permit, but she wasn’t sure how often she would carry a weapon. Before doing it often, she would have to prepare more mentally for the prospect of using a gun if the situation called for it.

“I would want to be in a different mindset,” she said. “I think I already have far more awareness and take far more precautions today than I did 10 years ago.

“But if I carried, I would really have to ramp that up.”

The waiting

Successfully completing the training earned me a certificate, which I took to the sheriff’s office along with a completed application for a concealed handgun permit.

The process also requires a cashier’s check for $52.50 for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to conduct a criminal background check and $100 for the sheriff’s office to cover its administrative expenses.

I was fingerprinted using the old roller-and-ink-on-cards method since the office’s digital fingerprinting machine was broken. A deputy took my picture. The fingerprints and application, which asks questions about one’s criminal record, will go to CBI.

The CBI’s check of federal and state databases looks for felony convictions and other reasons why an applicant may not be issued a concealed-carry permit under Colorado law.

The sheriff’s office checks local databases to see if an applicant has demonstrated behavioral issues, such as being charged with disorderly conduct or if law enforcement officers have been called to the applicant’s home. Permits are issued at the discretion of the sheriff.

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About 99 percent of applications go through without issues, said Angie Corp, coordinator of the office’s concealed handgun permit program.

The office has been swamped with applications since December and the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Spurred in part by concern about the possibility of tighter gun-control laws passing in the wake of Sandy Hook and other mass shootings, residents are applying for permits while they are still readily available.

In March, the office received an estimated 450 applications. In March 2012, it received 134.

State law requires the office to make a decision on a permit application within 90 days. The sheriff’s office just wrapped up processing applications from December and has started on the January stack, Corp said.

Corp has started working on weekends so she can process more applications without interruptions.

“I get a little bit of overtime even though it’s not in the budget,” she said. “So far I’m keeping up.”

If my application is approved, and I know of no reason that it shouldn’t be approved, my permit will come to me in the mail. It will be good for five years.

But then what? Will I buy a gun? Would I carry it in public? I rather doubt it. But it’s a possibility.

As the training made clear, being prepared to shoot someone in self defense or in defense of others is no small thing.

It’s an enormous responsibility that seems to me few people are able to bear.